Alarm from the economy:

The shortage of skilled workers is getting worse!

Concern for Lower Austria: Economic Chamber President Wolfgang Ecker and Economic Association Director Harald Servus sound the alarm.

(Bild: Wirtschaftsbund Niederösterreich)

Lower Austria as a business location is in serious danger! At least that is the view of Harald Servus, Director of the Economic Association, and Wolfgang Ecker, President of the Chamber of Commerce. Compared to the AMS, the self-monitoring shows 75 percent more vacancies in companies. In which areas there is the greatest shortage of staff ...

The Austrian Business Federation (WBNÖ) has some interesting figures: With 27,251 vacancies, almost 75 percent more vacant jobs are reported in the self-conducted monitoring than at the Public Employment Service (AMS), which shows 15,648 vacancies at the end of August.

Business location is at risk
Chamber of Commerce President Wolfgang Ecker and Wirtschaftsbund Director Harald Servus thus underline that the labor shortage is far worse than the AMS figures suggest. The duo are calling for swift measures to secure Lower Austria as a business location.

Most wanted: "Trade, logistics and transport"
According to the WBNÖ, the greatest shortage is in the "Trade, logistics and transport" category with 6,128 vacancies, followed by "Social, health and beauty care" with 4053 and "Construction, ancillary building trades, wood and building technology" with 3402 vacancies.

The AMS emphasizes that companies are not obliged to report their vacancies. "However, we have also noticed that companies in Lower Austria are still very busy looking for staff. Although we registered 12.4% fewer vacancies in August this year than in August last year, this figure is almost a quarter higher than in the pre-coronavirus year 2019," Martina Fischlmayr from AMS NÖ explained to the Krone newspaper. 52,780 jobs have already been filled with a suitable worker this year, the AMS spokesperson concluded.